2024-2025 College Basketball / NBA Draft

[Negrodamus]

Ace’s defense is decent but he’s not going to be a Giannis or anything. He doesn’t possess the same length or height. I’m just watching his defensive possessions on one of those Hardwood 2 hr videos and his defense isn’t too unlike his offense: magnificent highlight blocks and with a bunch of lazy close outs in between. I think he’d be a slightly above average defender in the league, but nothing elite. Really banking on that offense being special, imo.

[Covi_Marsh]

I forget MPJ is even on the floor and this is Ace's upside projection.

It wasn’t like that when they won their championship. They didn’t hand out that bad extension for nothing. He’s been pretty bad this postseason outside of 1 or 2 games.

[Iverson Armband]

Guard defense is way overrated.

Nuggets wouldn't have won title without the finishing touches that Bruce Brown and KCP provided.
Celtics wouldn't have won title without the finishing touches that Jrue Holiday and Derrick White provided.

The Thunder are trying to break through with Cason Wallace, Lu Dort, and Alex Caruso being the cherry on the top.

I agree that you probably shouldn't prioritize defense in a top G prospect, but in a general sense, you ain't winning unless you eventually acquire defensive Gs.

This is really what I meant. They weren’t winning without an alpha scorer like Murray either.

[Negrodamus]

Meanwhile, the guards are ripping the **** out of Denver with their good defense and OKC looks to be in a good place to close them out. Tre could never.

[Covi_Marsh]

Watching this OKC/ DEN I can see why ppl are high on VJ. You can watch him play and see he’s going to be like Caruso or Josh Hart in that he’s going to take defending the opposite team as a mission. He would do what Caruso is, face guarding Joker. He’s going to run in transition, chase down long rebounds, attempt chase down blocks. He is a winning player and at the very least you know you have an athletic Josh Hart. And Sixers may have beat Boston or beat Knicks last season with those intangibles when we continue to give up.

Issue is if you draft him, signing Grimes to a 15-20 mil a year over 3/4 yrs makes no sense unless you want to play a Maxey, VJ, Grimes back court the next 3 yrs. You’d have to go Maxey, VJ, George and resign Yabu.

[Negrodamus]

Watching this OKC/ DEN I can see why ppl are high on VJ. You can watch him play and see he’s going to be like Caruso or Josh Hart in that he’s going to take defending the opposite team as a mission. He would do what Caruso is, face guarding Joker. He’s going to run in transition, chase down long rebounds, attempt chase down blocks. He is a winning player and at the very least you know you have an athletic Josh Hart. And Sixers may have beat Boston or beat Knicks last season with those intangibles when we continue to give up.

Issue is if you draft him, signing Grimes to a 15-20 mil a year over 3/4 yrs makes no sense unless you want to play a Maxey, VJ, Grimes back court the next 3 yrs. You’d have to go Maxey, VJ, George and resign Yabu.

If I'm the Sixers, I have to believe that VJ is going to fill out to take him at 3. Dort, Caruso, Williams, Cason, they are all wide shouldered guys who have the weight to defend multiple positions in the playoffs. Shai is the guy who was the skinny twerp who filled out and is the superstar.

[Negrodamus]

One interesting point I've seen recently made was that once these blue chip recruits get to a certain level in HS, their expectations to be top 10 picks become a self fulfilling prophecy. Obviously some go to college and rise to the occasion, put up gigantic advanced numbers, and should be top draft picks. Meanwhile, Ace is the exact edge case that scares me. That's why I'm kinda interested in VJ since he rose in the ranks pretty late during his HS tenure, struggled in the beginning of the year, then went berserk.

[stormi]

Meanwhile, the guards are ripping the **** out of Denver with their good defense and OKC looks to be in a good place to close them out. Tre could never.

Just find it hard to get overly excited with with Tre.

Volume scoring as a primary archetype is one of the lesser valuable. No passing, no hustle, no steals, no rebounds, no defense. Useless without the ball in his hands.

Maybe he hits a 99th percentile outcome and turns into Devin Booker, but I see Jordan Clarkson or Norman Powell.

[stormi]

Forget about that jumper translating, get Ace on that limb lengthening program, stat.

Watch on YouTube

This is the vision.

[ProcessDoctor]

Hopefully our fans and front office see the value in STOCKs and rebounding after watching these playoffs.

STOCK savant Alex Caruso got multiple standing ovations today and punk’d Jokic on several occasions.

[Mik317]

I like VJ because of sick dunks

I am a simple man

one that should not be listened to if he was in a position of decision making lol

[Negrodamus]

Hopefully our fans and front office see the value in STOCKs and rebounding after watching these playoffs.

STOCK savant Alex Caruso got multiple standing ovations today and punk’d Jokic on several occasions.

[ProcessDoctor]

Hopefully our fans and front office see the value in STOCKs and rebounding after watching these playoffs.

STOCK savant Alex Caruso got multiple standing ovations today and punk’d Jokic on several occasions.

If we leave this draft with Tre or Kon, I will be broken.

[stormi]

Hopefully our fans and front office see the value in STOCKs and rebounding after watching these playoffs.

STOCK savant Alex Caruso got multiple standing ovations today and punk’d Jokic on several occasions.

If we leave this draft with Tre or Kon I will be broken.

Grouping a billion IQ, tooled up, oracular feel, hustle demon & malleable on+off the ball impactful presence with "Tre"...

[ProcessDoctor]

If we leave this draft with Tre or Kon I will be broken.

Grouping a billion IQ, tooled up, oracular feel, hustle demon & malleable on+off the ball impactful presence with "Tre"...

1.4 STOCKS per 36 min. I just can't with him bro. Tired of being cute and having teams like Boston and New York step all over us.

[Negrodamus]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Might be the only guy who does this at this level in the top 10 (other than Cooper of course).

[Jailblazers7]

One of the themes in the playoffs is the value of point of attack defenders. All the remaining teams have multiple defenders capable of putting real pressure on ball handlers to disrupt their opponents offensive flow. Big draw for a guy like VJ who has the tools and demeanor to take on that role.

[Negrodamus]

The things that give me pause about VJ are the actual things I'm "overthinking" when it comes to this pick. Drop his first 7 games, which is essentially an onboarding period for freshman, and his stats go up a decent amount.

Remove his first month and his stats are:
PPG: 16.1
APG: 3.3
RPG: 5.7
SPG: 2
BPG: 0.3
FG%: 45.8%
2P%: 52%
3P%: 36%
FT%: 80%

Add in the fact that he made the tourney, played well on Bahamas national team, had multiple 20+ games (one 30+). There's a lot of meat on the bones, particularly with his athleticism.

[ProcessDoctor]

The things that give me pause about VJ are the actual things I'm "overthinking" when it comes to this pick. Drop his first 7 games, which is essentially an onboarding period for freshman, and his stats go up a decent amount.

Remove his first month and his stats are:
PPG: 16.1
APG: 3.3
RPG: 5.7
SPG: 2
BPG: 0.3
FG%: 45.8%
2P%: 52%
3P%: 36%
FT%: 80%

Add in the fact that he made the tourney, played well on Bahamas national team, had multiple 20+ games (one 30+). There's a lot of meat on the bones, particularly with his athleticism.

Honestly, the only things that hold me back with him are his wingspan (about 2 inches short of elite) and age (will be almost 20 at the time of the draft).

Ace is a full year younger, comes with a 7' wingspan, and provides more STOCKs + rebounds.

[Negrodamus]

The things that give me pause about VJ are the actual things I'm "overthinking" when it comes to this pick. Drop his first 7 games, which is essentially an onboarding period for freshman, and his stats go up a decent amount.

Remove his first month and his stats are:
PPG: 16.1
APG: 3.3
RPG: 5.7
SPG: 2
BPG: 0.3
FG%: 45.8%
2P%: 52%
3P%: 36%
FT%: 80%

Add in the fact that he made the tourney, played well on Bahamas national team, had multiple 20+ games (one 30+). There's a lot of meat on the bones, particularly with his athleticism.

Honestly, the only things that hold me back with him are his wingspan (about 2 inches short of elite) and age (will be almost 20 at the time of the draft).

Ace is a full year younger, comes with a 7' wingspan, and provides more STOCKs + rebounds.

Well, I don't think it's fair to add those together since Ace is inherently at the rim more on defense. Stocks alone, VJ has the edge. And VJ rebounds at an excellent rate for a guard.